VHA Office of Emergency Management

VHA Emergency Management activities start with preparation at each VA health care facility. Facilities all create and maintain a comprehensive emergency management program, prioritizing the most likely risks and hazards for a specific location with specific plans to respond and recover. Our program is consistent with the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) National Preparedness System but focused on health care systems.

The comprehensive emergency management principles of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery is a phased disaster life-cycle model used to help ensure preparedness for and response to disasters.

Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) and Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) emergency managers use these principles to ensure their facilities and staff are able to respond to and recover from evolving threats and hazards.

4 Phases of Emergency Management

• Preparedness encompasses those strategies that the VHA health care system can employ to strengthen the facilities ability to manage the impacts of a disaster. Examples of preparedness strategies used in VHA healthcare include ensuring facilities are able to accommodate additional patient visits that often accompany an emergency or disaster.
• Mitigation encompasses those strategies that the VHA health care system can employ to reduce a potential hazard’s severity and impact before the incident even occurs. In some instances, mitigation measures can even prevent the incident from occurring. Examples of mitigation strategies used in VHA healthcare include ensuring facilities have back up for power, water, computer, data management and communication systems or that facilities are safe structurally.
• Response encompasses strategies required to save lives, protect property and the environment, and meet basic human needs after an incident has occurred. Examples of response strategies used in health care include the establishment of Alternate Care Sites. Alternate Care Sites are temporary medical facilities established when access to the VA medical clinics is impeded due to incidents or disasters. These sites are a means of providing medical services within an impacted area due to a disaster.
• Recovery encompasses those strategies required to assist the impacted community’s return to normalcy as soon after a disaster as possible. Some examples of recovery strategies include ensuring disrupted health care facilities are able to see patients again or the provision of ongoing behavioral health care as a result of the disaster.

VHA Office of Emergency Management (OEM) programs help to facilitate the delivery of continuity of health care. During times of war, terrorisms, national emergencies, and natural disasters, VHA OEM programs coordinate efforts to ensure continued service to Veterans, as well as support to national, state, and local emergency management, public health, safety, and homeland security efforts.

VHA serves as a support organization to the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS). The NDMS is a federally coordinated initiative to assist state and local responses to the medical and public health effects of major disasters and emergencies, as well as support to the military medical system in caring for casualties resulting from military conflicts.